Markham council voted late Thursday night to move forward with plans to borrow $162.5 million for a massive arena that could rival Toronto’s Air Canada Centre.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the Markham Chargers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs,” councillor Alex Chiu said before the vote.

Council passed the resolution 11 to 2 late Thursday night, but not before Markham residents had their say in the matter.

Those worried about hikes to property taxes, which are currently the lowest in the GTA, received raucous applause.

“It’s going to be on the residents of Markham to fund this if anything goes wrong,” longtime resident Donna Bush said outside of council chambers, citing Glendale, Arizona, home of the financially-troubled Coyotes NHL team.

Town officials repeatedly mentioned that Markham will raise the money through charges to developers and service fees at the arena, and not with property tax hikes.

But anyone who mentioned hockey got big cheers too.

“It’s the kind of thing that will have athletes in our community absolutely buzzing,” said Bruce Jackson, owner of the Markham Waxers junior-A hockey team. Hockey fans are hopeful that the arena will be bait for a third Ontario NHL team.

Markham’s financial contribution of $162.5 million represents half of $325 million in construction costs for the project. The other half will be provided by a private partnership, GTA Sports and Entertainment (GTASE), chaired by sportsgear executive W. Graeme Roustan.

Roustan helped bring the Sharks to San Jose, and tried to acquire both the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning in recent years.

Outside chambers, he denied suggestions that a single professional sports team would be needed to guarantee that arena operators could cover their rent to the town, saying that the Greater Toronto region could fill enough concert dates to keep the business profitable. “Gary who?” he said when a reporter mentioned the NHL’s commissioner by first name only.

But he said he would pick up the phone for anyone who called wanting to book the arena.

He said that GTASE’s contribution to the arena is guaranteed, but that no one should worry that Markham will be on the hook if his company were to ever walk away from the building.

“There would be a lineup of companies . . . who would love to take over operation of that building in this market.”

News that developers were considering building a 20,000-seat arena that will be owned by the town but run by a private partnership first surfaced last fall.

Rumours immediately began circulating that the arena was bait for a professional NHL franchise, which Roustan denied.

However, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said that GTASE had approached the league, but had been told to assume nothing.

This week, the Markham Economist & Sun, a sister paper to the Star, reported that a confidential document obtained by the paper states that the town is concerned cultural events would not cover the private group’s rent, and want a way out if no NHL team materializes.

Even if Markham did succeed in snagging a coveted second NHL team for southern Ontario, a hockey team would present its own set of financial hurdles. GTASE would almost certainly have to pay MLSE, the owners of the Toronto Maple Leafs, an indemnification fee for moving onto its turf.

And a large body of research by sports economists shows that professional sports franchises offer no tangible economic benefit to their host cities. Because consumers generally have a finite budget for entertainment, sports spending often comes at the expense of spending elsewhere in the community.

A report prepared by Markham staff, however, claims that building the arena will provide 886 permanent jobs, $61.1 million in annual GDP, and $13.2 million in taxes, assuming 130 annual events and $780,000 attendees.

The real value of a new arena or sports team, experts agree, is in intangible benefits — civic pride and the cachet factor of hosting a professional franchise. As Markham tries to put itself on the map with construction of an ambitious new downtown core, a professional sports team could provide a major boost.

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